Last weekend my wife and I were out in the Shenandoah valley area and poked into a couple antique shops. In an outbuilding of one way off the beaten path I found this old air compressor.

It looks like it could be from the model T era, but I'm not sure. It looks all original with an ancient electric motor that drives a Kellog compressor via chain drive. The air then goes into a metal reservoir. The on/off switch is the round piece in the lower right hand corner. The gauge only goes to 30 PSI, so its not too useful, but it sure is cool looking. The shop owner said it works and was in the back of their barn for man years. It sure would look cool in my garage along with my other antique tools and my touring car. What do you'all think? How old is it? They were asking $125 for it.

It does look cool for sure! Now if I were to make a guess, I would say that it's actually a compressor for an early refrigerator, the kind that would have used ammonia or something similar. But again, that's just a guess.

I had one similar to this at one time. The one I had was from an old hotel steam heating system. It was low pressure and used to somehow control the functions of the old steam radiators. Somehow it was used in conjunction with the air operated thermostats to allow for more or less steam to the individual radiators. I remember back when the thermostat was adjusted, I would hear some air hissing from the thermostat. This may in no way be where this compressor came from, but it sure is a good story!

There was a tag on the motor, I think it was a General Electric, but I don't recall the other details. The only other tag I could find was on the compressor, identifying it as a Kellog. The chain was not a roller chain, rather a multi-plate chain, similar to a timing chain. The unit was pretty grubby so there could have been another tag I missed. I didn't look cobbled together.